There’s a new Pink Panther movie on the way, but it won’t feature yet another character related to or inspired by Peter Sellers’ bumbling Inspector Clouseau.

The original series of caper comedy films opened with animated title sequences featuring a quirky pink panther… and those openings spawned a series of cartoon shorts by Friz Freleng and David De Patie that were funny and sometimes strange and impressionistic. (There was also a Saturday morning cartoon series, and in 2010 the Pink Panther and Pals series, but it may be best to avoid talking about that latter show too much.)

Now there’ll be a new hybrid live-action/CG Pink Panther film, derived from those animated title sequences and cartoons. Read More »

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As part of the screening put together in relation to the SXSW Title Design Competition, Ian Albinson from the website The Art of the Title Sequence put together a nice two and a half minute compendium of excellent film titles. (That features an occasional piece of television, too.) For any long-time film lover, this little video will probably elicit quite a few responses simply on the strength of the title cards on display. I queued several films to re-watch after exposure to just a few seconds of their titles.

Since 1989 the National Film Registry has preserved films in the Library of Congress that are determined to be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” This year’s crop of additions has been announced and it’s a pretty varied group that seems to recognize lasting value of ‘new’ classics (The Exorcist, Grey Gardens, All the Presidents Men) and some of the achievements of people who passed this year (Airplane!, The Empire Strikes Back, The Pink Panther). Read the full list after the break. Read More »

Blake Edwards, the writer/director/producer who created The Pink Panther and Peter Gunn and directed Experiment in Terror and Breakfast at Tiffanys, has died at age 88. The LA Times reports that he passed on due to complications of pneumonia; he is survived by wife Julie Andrews. Read More »

It saddens me to think that there are going to be generations of kids soon who will think The Pink Panther refers to “those Steve Martin movies.” It’s enough to make Peter Sellers spin in his grave, and he would undoubtedly be none too pleased with someone else inhabiting one of roles that he created and made iconic. But, that’s one of the problems with Hollywood remakeitis, so it’s up to us to keep the love for the original going. And if I catch anyone thinking that Keanu Reeves was in the “original” The Day The Earth Stood Still, I might just go ballistic.

The fact that a second The Pink Panther movie just came out only attests to the genius acting ability of Peter Sellers, which Martin is basically imitating anyhow, the smarts of Blake Edwards to create the character in the first place (even though these movies were pretty much an accident), and the impressive and catchy jazzy riff theme song by Henry Mancini. Read on to find out all about the history of The Pink Panther and the 10 other films (if you count the Martin movies) it spawned, not to mention the cartoons.